Curriculum changes deserve failing grade [Letter]

I think the new curriculum is not good at all ("MSA warning signs," July 15). As a country, we focus more on test and test scores than we actually do on teaching these kids. The old ways of doing things were better and way more effective.

What exactly are the "old way" of doing things? The math curriculum was developed based off how countries who perform better than we do teach their math (because we were failing miserably!) As far as the reading curriculum, I don't feel like its that different from the VSC...

We should adapt with the time without compromising our children's education — meaning add on instead of taking away or switching up. Also, those making these decisions should not be people who never stepped foot in a classroom as a teacher.

When it comes to decision making in the state of Maryland, I see those who make the decisions are usually people who have no or very little experience on the other side of the table. As a result, they are often only thinking of one way to do things which would be their way and that is not always the best solution.

After reading The Sun's editorial, "Ready for kindergarten?" (May 24), I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the absurdity of the editorial board's take on the Common Core and their belief that more vigorous testing and even earlier intervention is the answer to student success down the road.

After reading Liz Bowie's piece on Dec. 26 ("Md. schools move toward testing via computers"), it appears Maryland is now a prime example of how the runaway costs of assessments are spiraling out of control. In yet another illustration of the "build the plane as we fly it" insanity, school systems...

The term, "limousine liberal" was coined in the early 1970s to underscore the hypocrisy of families like the Kennedys who sent their children to private schools of their choosing while the school of choice for ordinary Americans was left to the state and a quota system.

It's time to put the narrative to rest: teachers are not lazy, incompetent, uncaring union thugs who need to be monitored by lengthy student testing and supplanted by devices. This tired, poorly drawn image brought to you by the so-called education reformers is falling to the truth, and public...

Even Maryland's youngest students are feeling the effect of the state's switch to the more rigorous academic requirements of the Common Core standards. This week state officials reported that fewer than half the state's 4- and 5-year-olds are "fully ready" to succeed when they enter Kindergarten,...

Recent evaluations of the state's preschoolers have determined that only 47 percent are ready for kindergarten, compared to 83 percent judged ready last year. This drastic drop isn't the result of an abrupt, catastrophic decline in the cognitive abilities of our children. Instead it results from...